A Roman Catholic priest charged under Ontario’s new “bubble zone” law protecting abortion clinics is vowing to challenge the accusation as a violation of his constitutional right to freedom of expression.

Father Anthony Van Hee, 83, a fixture on Parliament Hill for his anti-abortion protests, moved his silent demonstration across the street from the Morgentaler Clinic, on Bank Street near Sparks, on Oct. 24.

In a move to appease his social conservative base, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has put forward new measures to police speech on university campuses.

Thursday afternoon, the Premier’s Office issued a directive vowing to strip funding from universities that don’t implement new regulations policing speech on campus, targeting both student unions and individual students with financial penalties and disciplinary action if they protest “offensive” speakers and groups on campus.

Thirty years after Morgentaler ruling on abortion rights, Canada ‘still dealing with the same issues’ Only one in six hospitals in Canada performs abortions and some provinces have no standalone abortion clinics at all. New Brunswick, meanwhile, continues to refuse to fund abortions at the province’s only clinic.

By Brett Bundale, The Canadian Press
Wed., Dec. 20, 2017

It’s 1979. A 20-year-old student misses her period.

“I was in my third year of university. I used oral contraceptives but I got pregnant,” the woman, now in her late 50s, said in a recent interview from Montreal. “I hadn’t finished my degree. I wasn’t ready for a family.”

She avoided the French-language Catholic hospital where she lived in Moncton, N.B., and instead booked an appointment with a gynecologist at the city’s English-language hospital.

Ontario makes it illegal to protest outside and near abortion clinics
Legislature passes bill to create zones around 8 abortion clinics in the province

The Canadian Press
Posted: Oct 25, 2017

It will soon be illegal to protest outside and near abortion clinics in Ontario.

The legislature passed a bill Wednesday to create zones around the eight clinics in the province of between 50 and 150 metres in which anti-abortion protests, advising a person not to get an abortion, and intimidation or interfering with a woman's ability to access the services will be banned.

The ban will also automatically apply to 150 metres around the homes of abortion staff and health professionals who provide the services.

Scheer’s election as Conservative leader cheered by anti-abortion groups
Groups say they sold as many as 18,000 party memberships hoping to affect the outcome of the leadership race and grow the social conservative wing of the party.

By Tonda MacCharles
Ottawa Bureau reporter
Mon., May 29, 2017

OTTAWA—The election of Andrew Scheer, an avowedly anti-abortion Conservative Party leader, has cheered and emboldened anti-abortion groups who say his victory shows the growing strength of the social conservative wing of the party.

“This is what happens when pro-lifers do politics right,” said Scott Hayward, co-founder of RightNow, on his Facebook page.